India won their maiden Women’s World Cup title with a 52-run victory over South Africa at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Put into bat, the hosts rode half-centuries from Shafali Verma (87) and Deepti Sharma (58) to post 298-7 even though 350 looked well within their reach at one stage.<\/p>\n
Laura Wolvaardt led South Africa’s reply with a captain’s knock of 101 but they were all out for 246 in 45.3 overs.<\/p>\n
Sharma claimed 5-39 in a fine all-round display on a memorable night for the hosts.<\/p>\n
The women’s 50-overs cricket was guaranteed a new champion after South Africa hammered England and India chased down a record target to eliminate defending champions Australia in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
With this win, India joined Australia, England and New Zealand as the only countries to have won the showpiece tournament.<\/p>\n
Put into bat after a delayed start following intermittent drizzle, India began strongly with their left-right combination of Smriti Mandhana (45) and Verma forging an opening stand of 104 before being separated in the 18th over.<\/p>\n
Drafted into the side ahead of the knockout stage as a late replacement for the injured Pratika Rawal, Verma raced to a 49-ball fifty.<\/p>\n
Mandhana, India’s leading scorer in the tournament, fell short of a half-century after being caught behind to Chloe Tryon’s left-arm spin.<\/p>\n
Verma, dropped on 58, looked on course for a hundred but Ayabonga Khaka (3-58) ended her 78-ball knock that included seven fours and two sixes.<\/p>\n
Khaka struck another telling blow in her next over when she removed Jemimah Rodrigues (24), whose sensational hundred sank Australia on Thursday.<\/p>\n
India were cruising at 200-3 in 35 overs but South Africa managed to apply the brakes with the ball to drag themselves back into the contest.<\/p>\n
Sharma could not be denied her fifty though and Richa Ghosh (34) chipped in with a cameo but India still fell short of the 300-mark.<\/p>\n
Wolvaardt decided to lead by example when South Africa began their chase.<\/p>\n
Wolvaardt featured in half-century partnerships with Tazmin Brits and Sune Luus but part-timer Verma produced a two-wicket burst to rock South Africa’s chase.<\/p>\n
Wolvaardt took 96 balls to bring up her second hundred in a row but her exit in the 42nd over effectively sealed the match in India’s favour.<\/p>\n
The batter holed out against Sharma and Amanjot Kaur took the catch in her third attempt before being mobbed by her ecstatic teammates.<\/p>\n
Source: Reuters & RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India won their maiden Women’s World Cup title with a 52-run victory over South Africa at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday. Put into bat, the hosts rode half-centuries from Shafali Verma (87) and Deepti Sharma (58) to post 298-7 even though 350 looked well within their reach at one stage. Laura […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15547,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15545\/revisions\/15547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}